All that for this ? By relaunching a cycle of political consultations with the leaders of parliamentary groups on pensions, Elisabeth Borne perhaps intended not only to delay the presentation of the reform – finally postponed to January 10 -, but perhaps also to open up new leeway. After two days of successive interviews in his office, Wednesday December 14 and Thursday December 15, the results are however final: the positions of each other remain frozen to say the least, even if the entourage of the Prime Minister praises meetings “very useful and constructive”.
Unsurprisingly, Mathilde Panot (LFI) came out of Matignon denouncing a “deeply unfair” reform against which her group will oppose “with all its might”, in the street and in the hemicycle. Same story with Marine Le Pen (RN) who continues to speak of a “brutal and unfair” text. While Patrick Kanner, the leader of the PS senators, dropped this formula to denounce the government’s desire to postpone the legal retirement age to 65: “It’s the stick and the carrot policy, but the stick is the main objective”.
All eyes on Les Républicains
So how to get out of this impasse to try to wrest a majority in Parliament and not give the impression that the reform would be imposed brutally? All eyes are now on the Republicans, potential allies of circumstances. In an attempt to pass – a little – the pill, the Prime Minister would not be opposed to the idea of postponing the legal age to 64, rather than 65, but with an extension of the contribution period. Hypothesis already formulated by the senatorial majority… acquired on the right.
But a concession which has not yet, at this stage, obtained the favorable arbitration of Emmanuel Macron. “It’s going slowly, we can go towards that,” says a relative. “The Prime Minister does not have a mandate from the President of the Republic to brace herself on the 65th birthday”, continues Matignon for her part.
There remains another option, which moreover makes little more mystery: an amending social security finance bill, which would allow the executive to use article 49.3 of the Constitution to have its text adopted. “The most effective way to go to the end, but by far the most unpopular”, fears a minister, seeing the month of January take shape with social movements to oppose it and strikes which could paralyze the country for many years. long weeks.
“If the government and the President of the Republic maintain the fact that we are going to work longer, there will be social movements and no one will be able to say we were not warned”, already threatens the leader of the CGT Philippe Martinez.